Remora

Story of the day is the further melt-down of Enron. Remember Enron? Company voted most likely to be evil during the Bushy era? The company that once traded at 80 dollars per, and now is trading at a tenth of that? The company that might be sold to Dynegy (not, alas, Dynasty, which would have been soooo appropriate -- all Texas companies bear an uncanny resemblence to tv shows about Texas, and though Enron is based in Houston, the Dallas comparison, down to the match between J.R. and Ken Lay, Enron's CEO, is downright separated at birth). A year ago, the idea that a no-name would acquire one of Wall Street's hot shot companies - a company that treated California much like one of Marquis de Sade's heros treated the unfortunate Juliette -- would have been an ultra-giggle. Now, of course, those who are still invested in the energy trading or whatever it does company are praying this is the good news. The story in Fortune by Bethany McLean is a pretty good intro to the depths to which Enron's sunk:

Story by Bethany Maclean in Fortune:

Ending grafs go for the jugular, or in this case the balance sheet.

"Perhaps the biggest concern is the true profitability of Enron's core business, its energy trading operation. The heart of the Enron story, the stuff that captivated Wall Street, was the company's transformation from a stodgy gas pipeline into a technology phenomenon that could make a market in anything, from electricity to broadband. It's impossible to know if Enron has used the partnerships and off-balance-sheet vehicles to influence its reported earnings. Enron also mingles profits from asset sales with its trading income--and despite its pledges, in the most recent quarter the company provided less, not more, disclosure on that front. In addition there are questions about how aggressively Enron books trading-related revenue. In fact, a knowledgeable source at a competitor says that Enron recognizes its revenues at two to five times the rate of that company's. If energy trading is really such a fabulous business for Enron, why does it need to play so many games?

As for Ken Lay, who was once thought to be in Jack Welch's league, he has accomplished the truly remarkable feat of destroying much of what was left of Enron's credibility in just a few short months--along with some of his own. Some observers suspect that the problem is not that Lay is avoiding questions, but that he doesn't know the answers. In either case, Lay is a long way from keeping his promises. "

Irony (which is now, of course, officially unpatriotic) is that Fortune was a big pumper of Enron's cyber with-it-ness in the day. I'll find the links for that later today.